1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motion state control apparatus for controlling a motion state of a vehicle so as to pass a corner of a road properly by utilizing a so-called navigation system including road data storing means for storing road data, and an own vehicle position detecting means for detecting an own vehicle position on the road data.
2. Description of the Related Art
A motion control apparatus for a vehicle for controlling a vehicle speed so that the own vehicle properly passes a corner existing ahead of the own vehicle by utilizing a navigation system is already known (see Japanese Patent No. 3062777).
However, in the control for the vehicle to pass a corner easily by deceleration of the vehicle speed as in the above-described prior art, it is difficult to cope with such a situation as the driver excessively turns steering (hereinafter referred to as an operation which gives excessive steering input force exceeding the maximum lateral acceleration possible to occur with respect to the friction coefficient of the road surface on which the vehicle is traveling), and as the driver cannot decelerate to the speed at which the vehicle easily passes the corner. Consequently, it is desirable to make it possible to pass the corner more reliable by controlling the motion state of the vehicle properly even when excessive turning of steering occurs or even when it is not possible to decelerate sufficiently, and to enable the control to pass the corner reliably by properly determining the motion state of the vehicle at the corner.